In the End
by EowynofRohan13
Summary: A different version of the end of the movie, based entirely on a stupid detail I noticed while watching it for the millionth time. Oneshot.


Quick Summary: Did you ever notice how, after Gothel stabs Eugene in the end of the movie, there's no blood on the dagger?

I do not own Tangled.

In the End

For the first time in his life, Eugene Fitzherbert was certain about something. He _had_ to find Rapunzel. He had to make sure she was safe. What happened after that didn't matter. They could drag him back to prison for the rest of his life if they wanted to, as long as she was alright.

"Rapunzel!" he shouted, as loudly as he could. "Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" _Answer_, he thought, _answer, and let me know I'm just being paranoid about your safety because your mother, who's imprisoned you in a tower all your life, hired two thieves to get you back._ Nothing happened. He started to climb the side of the tower, wedging his fingers into cracks in the mortar. A second later, Rapunzel's hair flew out the window and fell past him. He grabbed it and hauled himself up into the tower, faster than he'd ever done anything in his life. He threw himself through the window, about to grab Rapunzel in his arms, tell her how worried he'd been, maybe kiss her…

Then he looked up.

And saw her chained to the wall.

He had time to wonder who, if not Rapunzel, had thrown her hair out the window. Then something hit him hard below his ribs. He doubled over. He tried to draw a breath, and found that he couldn't. His body hit the ground with a thud. Rapunzel was screaming as loudly as she could with a cloth tied over her mouth. A dark-haired woman was standing over him, holding a dagger.

Eugene wondered distractedly why there wasn't any blood on the dagger. His chest hurt, and he could barely breathe, but he didn't seem to be bleeding. He slid his hand under his vest. _Oh._ The seven hundred-page sketchbook he'd bought, and had planned to give to Rapunzel, was still tucked under his vest. _I can't believe the guards didn't notice that. What, did they not bother to search me, or something?_

"Now look what you've done, Rapunzel," Dagger-lady said. "But don't worry." She stepped over Eugene, who fought the urge to kick her. "Our secret will die with him."

Eugene was starting to get his breath back, but he lay on his side, fake-dying for all he was worth. _Just wait until dagger-lady lets her guard down…_ The woman removed Rapunzel's chain from the wall and started dragging her across the floor. "And as for us- we are going where NO ONE will ever find you AGAIN!" she said.

Eyes half-closed, Eugene felt around on the floor for something he could use as a weapon. One of his fingers brushed against a largish piece of broken glass. _Perfect,_ he thought, wondering in the back of his mind why there was broken glass all over the floor. He wrapped his hand around it and hissed as the glass sliced into his palm. "…stop fighting me!" the woman yelled.

"No!" Rapunzel shouted. "I won't stop. For every minute of the rest of my life I will FIGHT. I will never stop trying to get away from you!" _That's my girl, Rapunzel._ "But, if you let me save him, I will go with you."

"No," he moaned, remembering just in time that he was supposed to be dying. The blood from his hand was starting to drip onto the floor, and he pressed his fist into his shirt in the hope that it would slow the bleeding. "No, Rapunzel…"

"I'll never run, I'll never try to escape. Just let me heal him, and you and I will be together. Forever. Just like you want. Everything will be the way it was. I promise. Just like you want. Just let me heal him." Rapunzel was speaking in short, breathless gasps.

Dagger-lady dropped Rapunzel's chain. She walked over to Eugene, dragged him across the floor of the tower, and chained him to the wall, while he prayed she wouldn't look too closely at his supposed death-wound. "In case you get any ideas about following us," she said. He coughed, gasped, and tried his best to imitate a man in his death throes. Then Rapunzel was next to him.

"Eugene!" she whispered. As much as he had hated the name, he liked it twice as much coming out of Rapunzel's mouth. She cradled his face in her hands and brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes. He tried to keep up the fake-dying act. She brushed his hand away from his chest to look at his 'wound' and gasped.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, after a moment's shock. "Everything is gonna be okay though-" She put a lock of her hair down on his chest.

"No, Rapunzel."

"I promise you, you have to trust me, c'mon, just-"

"No- I can't let you do this-" _especially since I'm not really dying._

"And I can't let you die."

"But if you do this- then you- will die," he gasped.

"Hey," she whispered, "It's gonna be alright." She had her hand on his cheek, and he could feel it to his core. He reached his hand up to brush her cheek.

"Rapunzel- wait." Slowly, tenderly, he gathered her hair into one hand, at the same time inching his way upright. He grabbed the shard of glass as firmly as he could. Then he reached up with his other hand and cut off all of Rapunzel's hair in one motion. He slumped backwards against the wall, keeping his eyes half-closed.

"No!" Dagger-lady yelled. "What have you done?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Eugene tensed, ready for her to attack him. A minute later he saw that she wasn't going to be stabbing people anymore. She was aging. Rapidly.

The woman staggered backward, pulling her cloak over her face, every step taking her closer and closer to the window. Then she tripped. And fell. Rapunzel threw out her arms, as though she thought she could keep the woman from smashing to the ground by the sheer force of her will. Eugene sighed in relief, and slumped against the wall again.

Rapunzel stared at the window, for a moment. Then she turned back to him, tears pouring down her cheeks. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair. "Eugene! You're…"

"I'm alright," he whispered into her hair. "You?"

"I'm fine." He could feel her shoulders shaking as she cried, and he pulled her closer to him.

"How? What happened?" Rapunzel asked into his shoulder.

"She didn't stab me." Eugene said. He reached into his vest and pulled out the book. "She stabbed this. I was going to give it to you, but..." He held it up. The dagger had torn a neat hole through the middle of it. There was a tiny scratch on his skin where the dagger had gone through the back cover of the book, but it wasn't very deep. He'd had worse paper cuts.

"Better it than you." Rapunzel said. "You promise you're okay?"

"I got the wind knocked out of me. But other than that, it's just a scratch." Rapunzel raised an eyebrow at him. "Really. Just a scratch. I cut my hand on that piece of glass, so that's why there was blood on my shirt."

"Good. That's… that's good. Well, not the fact that you hurt your hand again, but…"

"You were my new dream, Rapunzel," he whispered, cutting her off.

"You were mine."

He kissed her again.

This time on the lips.

Not Pictured: Rapunzel spending forty minutes searching for the key to Eugene's chains, while Eugene glares angrily at the wall.

Followed by some more kissing.


End file.
